SOUL BOY

He won silver at Weymouth was fifth in Rio. Luke Patience wants the top step as much as ever, but a more sanguine view of life is doing him good, hears ROB PEAKE

An Albacore,” declares Luke Patience, “is a thing of beauty.” Given that Patience has been spending the last four years applying various bits of carbon to his latest-spec 470, his admiration for a 1954 wooden classic might come as a surprise. “When I go home to Scotland my dad has a clinker lug-sailed Scaffie,” he says. “I am a traditional sailor at heart.”

It is five months to go to the Tokyo Olympics and in between conversing with some passion about the classic hulls of yesteryear, Luke Patience has a spring in his step, because he and crew Chris Grube are North American 470 champions. “Again!” he points out. In terms of their Olympic medal aspirations, this is good news. They were up against the best in the world at the Miami regatta, including the Australians, Spanish, and Swedes who have been dominating the podium at recent 470 events.

“The training we put in over the autumn...you don’t immediately see the rewards,” says Patience. “But now it’s the Olympic year and it’s about creating a winning habit. The experimenting [with different gear] is down to minor detail now. At the heart of it is execution. We are trying to bring our best game to every competition.”

Patience can recall the first time he “tasted blood” in his youth, racing Optimists at his local club in Helensburgh. “You wanted to win every race after that.”

But these days it’s a more philosophical Patience, aged 33, who is going to his third Olympics, his second with Grube. Four years ago he qualified for Rio with Elliot Willis, before Willis was diagnosed with bowel cancer months before the Games. He has since recovered. Meanwhile, Patience teamed up with Grube, his crew from youth days, and finished fifth in Rio after less than a year in the boat together.